Category: Memes

30 Days of One Tree Hill: Day 30

Well, our thirty days now comes to a close. Several categories have created a challenge for us to think of just the right answers, but none so much as this last category. What makes One Tree Hill so great? Well, here’s what we think. And if that isn’t enough, watch the show and find out for yourself!

Julie
What makes One Tree Hill so great? It’s impossible to pick one reason, but I’ll start with the characters. For a show with such fantastical plots, the core characters remain surprisingly grounded, and I think that’s why the crazy plots work so well. One Tree Hill is a fantasy world where it seems normal for teenagers to get married, everyone is wildly successful after high school, and a dog eats a heart meant for a transplant patient, but it’s easy to relate to the characters because they are fully-developed, multi-faceted people and their relationships and emotions are presented in a rather realistic way. Realism aside, the crack element of One Tree Hill is tons of fun. Dan Scott as the scheming villain is probably my favorite example but I also love that the characters have big dreams like being in the NBA, being a rock star, or being a fashion designer, and it seems totally natural within the realm of the show when they all achieve these goals. The show has a lot to say about chasing your dreams and being true to yourself and that message shines through the wackiest of plots.

Meaghan
One Tree Hill is great for so many reasons. It’s quite hard to narrow it down to just three, but I will try. First, strong, OTH presents well-developed female characters and friendships between women which are portrayed fully and treated with respect. The show passes The Bechdel Test with flying colours. Haley, Peyton, and Brooke are characters female viewers can relate to and enjoy. Second, Nathan and Haley are one of the best TV couples ever. I’ve loved watching their relationship develop, and as I said in our Best Nathan and Haley Moment post, they make me feel better about life. I don’t know why, but they do. In Tree Hill, two teenagers can get married during their junior year of high school, have a baby by graduation, and manage to make their marriage work through a whole lot of drama. It’s a beautiful thing. It also leads well into my third point about why OTH is so great: the crack. It is a wacky show. Nathan and Haley’s story makes no sense, but on OTH it works. Think about the original characters: an NBA player, a rock star, a successful fashion designer … Lucas (a published author) and Peyton (who runs her own record label) are the least successful. It’s insane. Then there’s Dan, who is probably one of the most outlandishly evil villains in the history of non-sci-fi-or-fantasy TV, and ridiculous but fun incidents like Nathan and Chris Keller’s riverboat gambling adventure, or — the ultimate example — the dog eating Dan’s heart. It was the dog eats heart incident that first prompted us to watch the show. Our feeling was that a show which could produce such a moment, and not in a dream sequence or anything, might be worth seeing. We were right.

Morgan
Well, first things first. It’s difficult to encompass the greatness of One Tree Hill in only three screen captures. One of my favorite things about the show is not specifically within the show. Julie, Meaghan, and I were already good friends. We’ve really bonded over One Tree Hill, though. Without the show, we’d still be great friends, but it’s great that we found the show together. It’s made our friendship even better than it already was. Now, within the show. It’s a pretty insane show and it knows it. It embraces just how outlandish it really is. Despite those outlandish plots, the characters are real and they manage to root the show. These are characters I want to see succeed. When they do, I cheer for them. When heartbreak hits them, I sympathize with them and I went it to be better. It’s a nice little show and I’m happy to have it. Actually, I think if you want to know how great the show is, you get great photographic proof from our header images.

30 Days of One Tree Hill: Day 29

Nathan, Nathan, Nathan. So hot, with his shirtlessness and his good arms to have, and that whole being a basically perfect man thing doesn’t hurt either. We love him so much we had to give him two categories: we’ve already covered the most awesome Nathan moment; now we bring you the sexiest because, as we’ve discovered, no one says no to Sexy Nathan.

Julie: Nathan Jumps In the Bathtub Fully Clothed in 3.14 – All Tomorrow’s Parties In this scene, Nathan manages to be both incredibly sexy and adorable — even with all of his clothes on. Shirtless Nathan certainly has his merits, but he’s so spontaneous and silly and clearly happy to be with Haley in this scene that it is my pick for sexiest Nathan moment (and one of my very favorite Nathan and Haley scenes)!

Meaghan: 3.20 – Everyday is a Sunday Evening I suppose it’s cheating to pick an entire episode for this category, but … it’s a really, really sexy Nathan episode. We see him at his cocky, brilliant best on the basketball court. He gets stitched up in the locker room and returns to the game in dramatic fashion, making an epic no-look free throw to win the game for the Ravens and completely humiliate his rival, Damien West. It’s hot. (He’s also flirting with Haley while all this is going on, which is pretty hot too.) All this plus a bathtub scene. He told her he was sexy. No one disagreed.

Morgan: Nathan Goes to Haley in 4.11 – Everything In Its Right Place Nathan has spent a lot of time apologizing to so many people, but I find it sexy the time he intentionally doesn’t apologize. He does apologize for lying to Haley. But he will not apologize for being the guy who does what it takes to protect his wife and their son. He’s never going to be the guy who won’t protect them. Obviously, Nathan makes some unwise decisions, but it’s a very conscious move to not apologize for being who he is. It’s sexy. Haley agrees, because she loves every version of him and just wants to go home with him.

30 Days of One Tree Hill: Day 28

Music is a very important part of One Tree Hill and it just wouldn’t be the same show without the many montages and codas set to music, not to mention Haley’s singing career, Peyton’s passion for music, characters like Chris Keller, Mia, and Grubbs, and all of the artist appearances at Tric. Here are our favorite uses of music on the show.

Julie: Disintegration by Jimmy Eat World in 3.09 – How a Resurrection Really Feels This song plays when Lucas reveals to Deb that he knows she tried to kill Dan. I think it’s used brilliantly over the montage of scenes flashing back to that night at the dealership interspersed with scenes of Dan giving his mayoral victory speech. I love the juxtaposition of Dan’s speech (“You can’t kill Dan Scott!”) with images of his wife trying to murder him. The lyrics fit so well with the resentment in their relationship and the music makes this scene so much more powerful.

Meaghan: Pictures of You by The Cure in 6.21 – A Kiss to Build a Dream On This was a hard choice to make! There are so many great musical OTH moments. Pictures of You is a song I really love, though, and I think its use over the coda scenes of A Kiss to Build a Dream On really enhances the mood. The Cure is such a fitting band to represent Lucas and Peyton’s depressing relationship, and this song calls back nicely to Peyton’s drawings of their history for the baby’s sad box of stuff. It’s got a feeling of nostalgia to it and it’s all about missing someone, so I think it suits Lucas and Peyton’s emotions as they wonder whether she’ll live to see their daughter.

Morgan: Babe I’m Gonna Leave You by Led Zeppelin in 3.22 – The Show Must Go On
You can tell this is going to be an epic episode because it’s named after a Queen song. Let’s take a moment to acknowledge that only two primetime shows have ever been granted licensing to use a Led Zepplin song. One was The Sopranos. The other? One Tree Hill. It’s used so well. The song itself builds to its end. The action in the episode also does from Rachel and Cooper’s confrontation, Karen revealing she’s pregnant, Lucas realizing someone else is pregnant, Haley needing to tell Nathan something, and then finally the accident. I also love that the lyric, “you make me happy every single day, but now I’ve got to go away.” It’s a reminder of 3.17 – Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them when Nathan tells Haley that he wants her to know that if anything ever happens to him, she’s made him happy. Then, as this song plays, something is about to happen to him and he may have to go away. Great, great moment.

30 Days of One Tree Hill: Day 27

We admit to thinking the titles of One Tree Hill episodes were a little pretentious. That was before we began watching. Now? Well, if you watch the show then you know just how much character the episode titles add to the show. We’ve chosen three that represent a variety of aspects of the show, from the heartbreaking to the hilarious to the heartfelt.

Julie: 6.24 – Remember Me As A Time of Day
I’m not sure how to remember someone as a time of day, but I think it sounds rather haunting, especially in regards to the opening scenes of this episode when Peyton’s life hangs in the balance. This is also an appropriate title for the send-off of Lucas and Peyton. I think I’ll remember them as 3:00pm and 8:45pm.

Meaghan: 4.15 – Prom Night at Hater High
If the category had been Prettiest Episode Title, I would have gone with 6.24 – Remember Me as a Time of Day, which I’ve always found very striking. But that isn’t the category, so I had to go with Prom Night at Hater High. When I saw that title, it made me really want to watch the episode because it sounded so funny. Now that I’ve watched the episode a few times, I think this is probably one of the most hilariously descriptive episode titles OTH has used. First, it is prom night. (Okay, obvious.) Second, all the girls are soooo pissy throughout the episode. Hate, or at least mopiness, is in the air. Prom sucks.

Morgan: 2.13 – The Hero Dies in This One
It’s just so appropriate. Nathan becomes so quixotic and heroic. Then, he gets his heart torn out and stomped out. He can’t function without Haley, so the hero dies in this one.

30 Days of One Tree Hill: Day 26

In the great tradition of Melrose Place, The O.C., and other illustrious primetime soaps, One Tree Hill has a fantastic history of over-the-top (sometimes hilarious) violence. The best example (in our opinion) is this one.

Julie: The Basketbrawl in 3.05 – A Multitude of Casualties
It’s appropriate that this scene starts off with Dan yelling “Let the madness begin!” The midnight madness brawl is definitely the funniest fight of the show and everyone gets a piece of the action. The verbal fighting between Rachel and Brooke is hilarious. “This isn’t the pole dancing you do on weekends!” I always laugh when Nathan and Lucas come busting out on to the court fighting, and then the whole team starts fighting, and then the cheerleaders all start fighting. “Maybe someone was being a full-on diva skank!” Even the mascot isn’t safe from the madness.

Meaghan: The Basketbrawl in 3.05 – A Multitude of Casualties
Lucas and Nathan fighting each other on the basketball court before the home opener would have been pretty awesome on its own. Throw in the rest of the basketball team and a giant catfight involving the entire cheerleading squad, and you’ve got one of the most epic funny fight scenes in television history.

Morgan: The Basketbrawl in 3.05 – A Multitude of Casualties
Everyone gets a chance to take a swing! What a great way to start out the senior year basketball season! It would be one thing just for the team to fight, but then the cheerleaders get in on the action. And the mascot. All of this makes for the best brawl in Tree Hill history. Honorable mention to Peyton and Brooke vs. Psycho Derek in season four.

It Was Just a Joke

Welcome to It Was Just a Joke, a little fan site for the secret greatest show on television. This site is home to our One Tree Hill fanlistings, icons, thoughts, and other random content. Warning: spoilers for all episodes!